Paris

But let's start with some history. It begins indeed not only with the Celts, but with the British. To be more precise: on the 28th of December 1834. That's the day Henry Peter Lord Brougham, a former Finance Chancellor (he worked a lot to abolish slavery) who was on his way to Nice with his sick daughter Eleanor in a carriage with six horses, was stopped at the Sardinian border by frontier guards. Cholera had erupted in Provence and only those who had a "quarantine certificate" could enter the kingdom of Sardinia. Indeed, Nice was at that time inside the Sardinian kingdom, ruled by the house of Savoia. The border where Brougham and his were halted was the river Var, not far away from the actual Nice airport. So they had to return and settled down near Cannes in the hotel Pinchinat. After a week stay Lord Brougham was so ravished and happy in his new neighbourhood that he decided to stay. He was fallen in move with the city and landscapes. He bought a piece of land immediately, build the villa "Eleonore", and astonished the "Cannois" by creating an immense garden " without vegetables" who absorbed huge quantities of water to keep rose -trees and rose-bushes alive, which he imported from England!
But he was not the first. Tobias Smollett had already done this trip 70 years ago coming from Montpellier and had written a report about it in his book: "Travels through France and Italy". Arriving at the river Var, he surely didn't realize that this would be the origin of tourism in the Cote d'Azur! It was December 1763. Soon he was seduced by Nice and England was amazed to hear that almond-trees were already blossoming in January in this unknown region called Riviera! He climbed up to the chateau and admired Nice from above. He was a very critical and difficult man, with a sharp eagle's eye but never satisfied. So the enthusiastic reports he wrote on Nice would indicate that he liked what he saw.

Bibliography:

Tobias Smollet, "Travels through France and Italy", (Oxford University Press, Oxford, New-York in the series World Classics), John Pemble, "the Mediterranean Passion, Victorians and Edwardians in the South", (Oxford University Press 1988), Mary Blume, "Cote d'Azur. Inventing the French Riviera" (Thames and Hudson, London 1982)

From Nice to Saint-Tropez (suite)

Cap d'Antibes

Juan les
Pins-Golfe-Juan-Vallauris

Cannes

Iles de Lerins

La Napoule and Henry Clews

Esterel cornice to Frejus

Frejus

Sainte Maxime to Port Grimaud

Old Grimaud and Cogolin

Saint-Tropez

From Saint Tropez to Cassis

Ramatuelle-Gassin-Croix Valmer-Cavalaire sur mer

Le Lavandou-Bormes les Mimosas